"The president has planted the seeds for peace, and now it's up to the parties to nurture those seeds and grow them," WH spokes-tool Ari "the Liar" Fleischer said.

"We could have done without the speech," one Arab diplomat in Washington said. "This speech was like putting salt on an open wound. It will create havoc. Everything could have been done more subtly."

Bush's call for new leaders "not compromised by terror" received a cool response from the United Nations and European officials, as well. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that radical leaders from the Islamic group Hamas could emerge in Arafat's stead. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and others said they would work with Arafat if he were reelected in national elections expected as early as next year. - - Snipped from
The Boston Globe.

"I laid out the conditions that I thought were necessary. I called on all parties in the region to assume the proper responsibilities," Emperor Snippy whined. "Now I can go back to my comic books!"

Ari the Liar added Tuesday: "If the parties [in the Middle East] want to find a way out of the violence, they need to heed his call." (?!?!?! This is a joke, right??!)

"Those who dreamed that the president's speech would spark new hope had their dreams dashed," Israel's largest newspaper, Yediot Aharonot, said Tuesday. "Bush proposed a peace process and buried it with his own words. Even Arafat's opponents will come to his defense in the face of the American tyranny." From The Los Angeles Times.

George Bush's statement on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict cannot accurately be termed a new policy. Nor is it a plan in any meaningful sense, certainly not a substitute for the Oslo process. It does not even furnish a road-map towards the longed-for ceasefire and a resumed dialogue. Mr Bush's speech does not represent the long-awaited, post-Clinton re-engagement of the US in Middle East mediation. On the contrary, by making a series of impracticable and unrealistic demands of the Palestinians while accepting without question the numbingly destructive policies of Ariel Sharon's government, it ends any remaining pretence of US impartiality.

After 18 months of dilly-dallying in the Middle East, and an interminable internal administration debate, Mr Bush has failed to rise to the challenge or even, it would seem, to comprehend its true nature. No peacemaker he, and no statesman either.

Mr Bush provides no tools for the job. His secretary of state, Colin Powell, has put off plans to visit the region. No special US envoy has been charged with pursuing Mr Bush's ideas. The peace conference promoted by Mr Powell is indefinitely postponed. There is no timetable and, crucially, no immediately persuasive incentive for extremists to stop the daily killing. The conclusion must be that Mr Bush and his senior advisers, excluding the hapless Mr Powell, do not actually expect any progress and hope effectively to freeze the conflict on Israel's terms while absolving the US of Arab blame.

Sad to say, with his vapid talk of a "vision", Mr Bush has created a vacuum, confused the issues, ducked responsibility, and set back the cause of peace. Forget Mr Arafat for a moment. Americans and Israelis also deserve better leaders. Snipped from The Guardian.

Ha - the bushmoonies' panties are in wads over Katie Couric's interview with Ann 'the man" Coulter. Here's what set them off: "You've been called everything from a pundit extraordinaire to a right-wing tele-bimbo," began Couric. I guess the part where Annthrax likened Ms Couric to Eva Braun was OK with them.